Govt ready to discuss changes in GST bill with Congress: FM

NEW DELHI: Finance MinisterArun Jaitley today offered to discuss with Congress changes in the GST bill but counselled the party to reconsider its suggestions saying some of them can "damage" the system much more than it can benefit.

Jaitley, who needs Parliament approval for the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Bill in the winter session beginning Thursday to rollout the new indirect tax regime from planned April 1, said he is willing to discuss with Congress as some of its suggestions were not in the larger interest of the GST structure.

"We are reaching out to them, we are willing to discuss with them because some of these suggestions may not necessarily be in the larger interest of the GST structure," he said at an Assocham event here.

Jaitley said those stalling reforms should realise that space for obsolete thinking is now shrinking and those who support reforms is much bigger than those who obstruct.

"The wisdom which dawned on my friends in the Congress party had not dawned on them when Pranab Mukherjee (as Finance Minister) introduced the GST (in 2011).

"It did not dawn on them when (the then Finance Minister) P Chidambaram accepted the Standing Committee recommendations but to come out with the preposterous suggestion that tariff must be mentioned in the Constitution document so that in a given exigency if tariff has to be altered you need a two-third majority in both houses of Parliament and has to go to each of the states," he said.

Jaitley said it would be "extremely unfair" to the country "if we try to impose in the name of political compromise, a GST with a defective architecture".

"And when tariff rate has to be mentioned in the Constitution itself, (then it) is a flawed architecture... Because the GST with flawed architecture can actually damage the system much more than it can benefit," he said.

The Congress had stalled passage of the GST Bill in the last session of Parliament over its demand that a revenue-neutral rate not higher than 18 per cent be mentioned in the Constitution Amendment bill.